On Tending Adam's Garden

According to the Talmud, Adam embodies the idea of individuality. The Talmud is a compendium of rabbinical thought that has its beginnings some time after the canonization of Jewish Scripture over 2,000 years ago and extends for 800 years thereafter (from about 300 BC to about AD 500). The Talmud aims at establishing the principles, practices, and spirit of a way of life. The analysis of cognition adds biologic support to the Talmud's hermeneutics; each individual fashions a unique world out of his or her unique somatic experience. The story of Adam is the story of the self that cannot be a fixed material substance; all of the molecules are in a state of constant flux. The self is composed of interactions, self-organization, history, and memory. The self, like the story of Adam, is a story of interactions with a world of people and things; thus, the self emerges as a string of self-organizing events.